Final Conclusions
by When In Doubt Smile
Summary: Ten conclusions people came to about Marcos Diaz and Lorna Dane, in reverse order.


10\. Esmé

Esmé takes a large amount of pride in being able to read people. Granted, it's helped by being able to sense their thoughts, but even without her power she thinks she'd have been pretty good at it. But even a novice would have been able to figure out that what Marcos and Lorna had between them was love. And when she realizes that, as she watched him pull his girlfriend to his side as Esmé recounted the Hound girl's horrific story, she rejoices. Because people who are in love are people who can be manipulated. People who are so in love that in a moment of sadness they can put aside their differences and hug are people who have something to lose and therefore something worth fighting for.

 _Yes_ , Esmé thought, _I can use this._

And she does. She makes Lorna have nightmares and taunts her and makes it clear that an extreme stance now could mean Marcos and the baby being safe later on. And Lorna fall for each and every one of the deceptions and half-truths. Esmé doesn't lie. She believes almost everything she's saying. Yes, something needs to be done to stop the hate that mutants have been facing and she truly does think bringing down Campbell is the way to do that, but what she honestly doesn't know is if Marcos will take Lorna back once she's done what she had already set her mind to. Once upon a time, when fairytales seemed like they could be real life Esmé might have believed that true love could conquer and that the two lovebirds would be able to reconcile in the new world she, her sisters, and Lorna were building. But Esmé Frost had stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago.

Esmé's final conclusion: They may be in love, but no love is that strong.

9\. Andy

Andy is a typical teenage boy and that more than anything is the reason it takes him so long to realize that Marcos and Lorna aren't just _dating_ but are instead head-over-heels crazy for each other. And really he only figures it out because he hears them say it. He's 15 and a bit preoccupied with not dying for goodness' sake! He's not focusing on people's romantic feelings. But even he can pick up on hints that people are in love with each other, especially when the hints are them saying those exact words.

Sure, there were lots of signs that they were probably in love before the day it finally clicked for him. They were dating. A kid was on the way. Marcos had gone crazy trying to get Lorna back. Lorna talked about Marcos a lot. And they spent a ton of time together. But Andy knew people at school who did all of those things too who then went and broke up. It was sad, sure, but it was also perfectly reasonable for him to think that maybe these two would end up just co-parents a year down the line with no romantic feelings between them.

He and the other kids are in training when it happens. First, Lorna nearly chucks a small pot at Marcos' head, which is really funny for all involved (except maybe Marcos, but who knows for sure that he wasn't laughing on the inside?) and brings an abrupt stop to the lesson. Some sort of mission is going on today. Andy isn't very clear on the specifics but he knows that Marcos, John, and Shatter are heading out soon to try and meet up with a contact of some sort. The couple steps aside of the group of teens ("Lauren, you're up. Try and see if you can get Andy to stop something without bringing the building down.") and proceed to talk in hushed voices. He hears bits and pieces about the baby, training, being home before dawn, and the importance of not being spotted. All pretty normal stuff. But then Marcos says he loves Lorna and she says it back and it sounds nothing like the way kids at school throw around the terms or how people in movies might say it. It sounds like two people trying to put their hearts into three syllables, both painfully aware that eight letters can't encapsulate their true feelings. It sounds a lot like a promise of forever. A promise that tomorrow they'll still be together and that the same will be true in a year and for every day beyond that. It sounds exactly like when his parents tell him that they love him. And if there is one thing he knows it's that if someone is talking like that, they're never going to let go of each other.

Andy's final conclusion? Sometimes when people say they love you they really, really mean it. And don't get hit in the face with a spatula.

8\. Lauren

Lauren is well-versed in the art of spotting crushes and relationships thanks to nearly four full years of high school drama. It's not so much a skill as much as a means of survival. But the one feeling you don't really see in high school is love. So it's not until she sees her parents hugging a few days after being reunited that it clicks. Marcos and Lorna didn't have the same vibe as the couples at school or the same look in their eyes as she had seen on countless faces as they looked at their crushes. Nope. Lorna and Marcos held each other like her parents did. Which meant only one thing: love.

"Hey, Mom. Can I ask you a question?" Lauren asked one day as she sat nearby while Caitlyn finished making the daily lunch of macaroni and cheese.

"Yeah. What's up kiddo?"

"Do you think a relationship could survive all of, you know, this?" she asked, gesturing to the mutants around them.

Caitlyn turned away from the pot she'd been stirring and sat down on a chair near Lauren with a quizzical look on her face. "That's an odd question. What brings that up?"

"I was just thinking about Lorna and Marcos. They're obviously in love and I was just wondering if they had any chance of making it. Everything is just so crazy here and their lives are even more dangerous than ours and I'm certain having a baby on the way makes things even harder."

"Honestly, I don't know if they can make it. I want to think so, but, like you said, this isn't an easy way to live. But what I can tell you is that I think they're family and, just like us, it'll take a lot more than this mutant insanity to ruin that. Now go and get your brother and dad for lunch. I put canned chili in the mac and cheese this time so it's not a meal to be missed."

Lauren's final conclusion: Only two incredibly strong people could get through this still in love. She hoped Lorna and Marcos were strong enough.

7\. Caitlyn

Caitlyn knows that the man sitting next to her in the car is in love as soon as he calls Lorna is his family. It clicks instantly because those are the words she's been saying over and over as she tries to convince people to help her save her husband: "He's my family." And now here was a young man who was saying the exact same thing about this girl whose fate so resembled Reed's.

Marcos' eyes are focused on the road but she can see the desperation beginning to seep into them as he thinks about his partner who, for all he knows, he may never see again. _No_ , Caitlyn reprimands herself because if Marcos doesn't ever see Lorna again then there is almost no chance that she'll see Reed and Caitlyn Strucker refuses to believe that such a thing could ever happen.

"She seems like a wonderful woman," Caitlyn offers up like a life preserver to Marcos as he struggles to keep from drowning in his thoughts.

"She is. She's amazing."

"What's she like?" Caitlyn is determined to keep him talking and focused. She knows just too well just how dangerous it can be to allow one's mind to wander to dark places and she needs Marcos at his best if they're going to pull this off and get back to Clarice before she destroys the Underground entirely.

"She's… I don't know. She's like a force of nature. If she thinks something needs to be done she'll do whatever it takes to accomplish it. She loves people more than anyone I've ever known and if you're lucky enough for her to love you then she'll do anything to make sure you're safe. She's smart too. So many of our missions have only worked because she's planned them. She can be funny, when she wants to be. But mostly she's just so strong. She's determined and nothing can break her and…," Marcos' voice peters out as they approach the hospital.

Turning to the young man sitting next to her, Caitlyn reaches out a hand and places it on his arm. "Hey. We'll get them back. Lorna and Reed." Marcos offers a small smile in exchange as he parks and gets out of the car. When he looks back to make sure that Caitlyn is following him up to the hospital steps she catches a look of pure determination in his eyes.

Caitlyn Strucker's final conclusion? Marcos Diaz will do anything to get Lorna Dane back and she never want to see what happens to someone who comes between them.

6\. Reed

Reed Strucker had seen enough of cases of unrequited love in his life to know that just because one person was in love didn't mean that the person they cared for loved them back. He'd also seen more than his fair share of people who got pregnant and didn't stay with their partner. And it was for those two reasons that he didn't assume that what Ms. Dane had with her child's father was love. Sure, she refused to give him and the Mutant Underground up to Sentinel Services and nearly killed a police officer who had shot him but she could have just been loyal to her cause and someone who was clearly part of her team. Did her actions maybe suggest that she loved him? Sure. But he didn't have enough evidence to pass a true judgement and expected to never have the information necessary to do so.

That is, until a little over 24 hours late when he found himself sitting across from Marcos Diaz, begging for help from the organization that he had just been trying to destroy. It'd been a long day.

And here was the thing, any doubts Reed may have had about the feelings between the two young adults fled from his mind when Diaz put his glowing hand right above Reed's arm. That wasn't the move of a casual boyfriend. Marcos was not making an idle threat. That was something that he would have done for Caitlyn or Andy or Lauren. That bespoke true love. Here was someone who was willing to risk everything for a girlfriend he had no guarantee of ever seeing again. Diaz had no way of being sure that Reed wasn't actually working as a spy trying to get him in prison. There was no promise that Reed was actually a father with two children who had revealed mutant abilities the night before. And even if that was the case, Diaz had to realize the potential consequences of threatening someone who only a little while earlier was trying to prosecute his girlfriend. A simple boyfriend would have made some idle threats. But Diaz had a burning hot hand inches from Reed's skin and that was the move of someone who was desperately trying to reunite with the love of his life.

Reed's final conclusion: Don't ever get between Marcos Diaz and Lorna Dane.

5\. Clarice

Clarice felt horrible when she realized how close Marcos and Lorna actually were. Sure, she felt bad beforehand but this was on a new level. She had separated two people who were clearly very, very in love. How did she know they were in love? She saw it all over Marcos' face. Heard it in his voice. Recognized it in the purposeful way he moved. Everything about his entire being screamed of a shattered piece of a whole that had been ripped from their other half. She knew the look. Not because she'd been that half but because she never had been.

Clarice Fong was pretty certain that she'd felt just about ever feeling on the spectrum. She'd felt joy and anger and heartbreak and contentment. But she'd never really felt that sort of love where you were certain that the whole universe had conspired to bring you and this other person together. But clearly Marcos Diaz had because everything about him was new to Clarice and that earth-shattering love was the only thing left that she hadn't seen.

He was so desperate. That was the thing that stuck out the most to her. The way his shoulders slouched and his voice scratched and his eyes searched every room as if maybe, just maybe, he hadn't heard her slip in a back door. Only she wasn't ever there. And then his eyes would still and fall down to his hands, as if praying that maybe if he stared long enough her hand would appear in his.

Clarice's final conclusion: Never fall in love with someone and then lose them.

4\. John

John figured it out because Marcos told him.

"I think I might be in love with her," Marcos had muttered one day.

John hadn't really been listening (still wasn't). "In love with who?"

"Say that a bit louder next time; I don't think she heard you. C'mon, man."

Much quieter this time, "Sorry. It's just not something you expect to hear." A pause. "What makes you say that anyway."

"I don't know. I just… I don't know. We've been together for half a year now and things are going great and I think I've loved her for forever but now it's finally all clicking and now I'm aware of the fact that I'm in love with her and now I have no idea what to do," Marcos looked at John with pleading eyes as he finished his speech.

It really shouldn't have surprised John to hear. Afterall, the two had been nearly inseparable for the past six months. They ate together; they attended meetings as a couple; they tried to be on the same missions. If you couldn't find Marcos you just looked for Lorna because she was never far behind and vice versa. They had truly moved from being a pair to being two parts of the same, incredible whole. In hindsight, John should have known they were in love long before either had a chance to confide in him.

"So are you going to tell her that?"

"That I love her? I guess at some point I'm going to have to, but I just… What if she doesn't love me? What if I ruin everything? What we've got now is so good. I don't want to destroy it just because I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

"Have you considered that maybe she's thinking the same things right now?" John asked, looking at his friend with only a hint of pity in his eyes.

"No…"

Rolling his eyes, John responded, "Go and talk to her, you idiot." And with that Marcos Diaz turned and nearly ran to find Lorna Dane.

John's final conclusion: Love made people rather stupid.

3\. Sonya

Sonya knew they were in love when she saw the way Lorna smiled at Marcos when he wasn't looking. It wasn't a bright smile, one with wattage that could outshine the sun, but a quiet one full of contentment and peace. And it was exactly the sort of smile that Sonya herself had when she looked at Johnny. And that's when Sonya's "best friend mode" kicked in.

The two women had only known each other for a couple of years but it had been enough time for her to see just how much Lorna shouldered on a daily basis. Between being one of the leaders of the Atlanta Underground and trying to deal with her mental illness without the help of medication (none of them could just swing by their local Walgreens and pick up drugs as needed), plus training kids to survive in an increasingly hateful world, Lorna was, in a word, swamped. Sure, Marcos had been a godsend in the beginning. He brought some much needed manpower to the Underground and he and Johnny had become a nearly unstoppable team. Overall, Sonya liked him a lot, but she also knew firsthand the dangers of a heartbreak. She'd seen in dozens of times in the women at the shelters. Women who, despite having been beaten and hurt over and over again, couldn't help but cry because at one point they'd thought they'd been loved and now they were having to realize that their abuser's feelings were far from love. Sonya didn't expect Marcos to start beating Lorna, but she wouldn't put it past him to end the relationship one day and to leave Sonya with a betrayed Lorna. (With a Lorna who looked at Marcos the way Sonya looked at Johnny, with a deep sense of longing and tears not far behind.) Sonya believed in her friend's ability to overcome anything but picking yourself up after being in love and then losing that love was a messy and painful business and no one had time for that.

And then Sonya turns to see Lorna laughing at something Marcos had just said as he pulls her in for a hug and she can't help but hope beyond hope that it all works out.

Sonya's final conclusion: Marcos better not break Lorna's heart or he was a dead man.

2\. Lorna

Truthfully Lorna doesn't really know when she actually fell in love. All she knows is that one day she was sitting there laughing with Marcos about something stupid and it hit her like a slap to the face. This wasn't a crush. It wasn't infatuation or just someone she really liked. This was it. This was Love with a capital 'l' and all the joy and sadness and fear that came with it.

In her head she swore like a sailor.

Not because she wasn't happy or because she didn't think Marcos was a great person or anything but because how could he, a rather exceptionally well-adjusted (all things considered) man ever love someone like her? Here she was, a terrifying mess of a person who was barely avoiding drowning in her duties with the Underground and rarely felt mentally stable. And there he was, a person who literally shone and would project rainbow lights onto the ceiling of their room when she was manic and couldn't sleep and would hold her when she cried for hours on end until there was no more tears left to shed. How on Earth could two such completely different people in such a chaotic world ever dream of making this work?

She was yanked out of her reverie by Marcos' voice. "Babe?"

"Huh?"

"Did you hear a word I said?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Meet with Daniel at 4:00 sharp to get the plans for the Sentinel Services building. Sorry. I was just thinking."

At that Marcos gave her a look that wordlessly asked her to share what thoughts had dragged her away from him. And it was that look in that moment that sealed her fate, for better or for worse. That look that showed that he wanted to follow what was happening in her head whether it was good, bad, or incredibly ugly. He wanted to hear her thoughts and be told about the demons that ran through her mind oh so often. It made her stomach flutter with joy because maybe, just maybe, this could be something wonderful.

Lorna's final conclusion: She was going to do whatever she had to to keep this going.

1\. Marcos

Marcos fell so hard and fast that he doesn't even remember the 'falling' part, just the 'in love' part that he's found himself living in. And it is that last part that has brought him to a bar in the middle of nowhere with just a small bag of belongings and a deep-seated fear that he is about to be taken out by the cartel, despite promises from Carmen's father that he could leave the family on good terms (Carmen was far less agreeable when he broke the news to her that he was leaving).

The drink he was nursing was doing absolutely nothing to take the edge off and he was bouncing his leg rapidly, trying to release at least a fraction of the nervous energy inside of him. In truth, he knew how stupid all of this was. He'd met with Lorna and John only a month ago and had helped them out a couple times since but he'd been adamant that he was not, under any circumstances, leaving the cartel. He'd come up with excuse after excuse and Lorna, with her quick wit and sharp tongue had called him out on each one. It was too dangerous, he'd say. She'd retort that the Underground protects their own and he'd be safe. Carmen would never be okay with it he'd sigh. She'd roll her eyes and promise him that truly she could find him another girlfriend if that was his hang up about the whole thing. He'd make a comment about it just not being a good fit and she would get up from the table and walk away because "that was the most ridiculous excuse ever". (Years and years later, when Aurora is older and the world is a fair bit brighter and they're not running and hiding anymore, Marcos will decide that it must have been during those early arguments where he fell for Lorna.) John hadn't ever pushed Marcos to join them, but Lorna had pushed incessantly until he'd found himself laying in bed with Carmen desperately trying to come up with an actual reason to not leave. He didn't love Carmen; they both knew that. It would be dangerous, but he knew that he could take care of himself if he needed to. And he did enjoy the work he'd done with mutants in the past. He'd liked the way the work had made him feel like he was making a difference. _That's it_ , he'd thought, _that's why I want to leave_. But that hadn't felt right either. There was something else. _You mean_ someone _else_ , a small voice in his head whispered. It wasn't until he'd woken up with images of black hair and green nails in his mind that he'd begun to accept that maybe his heart was telling him it was time to go.

And that's how he'd ended up sipping a truly horrendous drink in a bar at 4:00 in the afternoon on a Thursday, ready to leave the cartel to join a group of mutants.

Then Lorna Dane walked through the door and gave him that smile of hers and he corrected himself. He was leaving the cartel for the chance of a future with someone better doing something good, regardless of the cartel and his past and his flaws and the fact that this was all an enormous risk that could blow up in his face at any moment.

Marcos' final conclusion: He was doomed. But maybe it'd be worth it.


End file.
